China’s surplus steel keeps flowing to Vietnam

Struggling with lower demand and oversupply at home, China continues to ship its surplus steel products overseas with neighboring Vietnam being a destination of choice.

Shipments from China dominated Vietnam’s total steel imports in March with 1.166 million tons, accounting for more than 60 percent of the total volume that the latter imported in the month. The imports from China rose 86.2 percent compared with the same month in 2015, according to latest Vietnamese customs data.

Rising shipments from China made Vietnam’s steel imports hit an all-time record high of 1.94 million tons in March, jumping 76 percent year on year. Imports from two other key suppliers, Japan and South Korea, only accounted for 15 percent and 9 percent, respectively.

Imports from China in the first quarter rose 70 percent from a year earlier to 2.9 million tons, or 61 percent of Vietnam’s total imports in the period, the Vietnamese data showed.

In an effort to fight against surging imports, Vietnam imposed from March 22 provisional safeguard duties of 23.3 percent on imports of billets and 14.2 percent on long rolled products. The duties will be effective for up to 200 days, Vietnam's Ministry of Industry & Trade has said.